Patience pays off for Stewart at Pocono

Points leader, relegated to the back of the field after a crash in practice, maneuvers his way to the front ... and Victory Lane.

June 08, 2009|By Keith Groller OF THE MORNING CALL

Usually when you're sitting on the pole of a race and lose the spot by crashing in practice, you're upset. Especially if you're Tony Stewart.

But Stewart was extraordinarily calm on Saturday morning after he was forced to the backup car and the back of the pack for Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway.

Stewart must have known something.

The newest car owner on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit patiently worked his way through the field and successfully gambled on fuel strategy to win the Pocono 500.

He became the first driver-owner to win a race since Ricky Rudd won at Martinsville in September 1997.

"We had a great race car and I'm so proud of our guys," Stewart said. "They did such a good job and were so prepared that when we went back out there [after Saturday's crash] it was like we hadn't missed a beat."

Carl Edwards led 103 laps and seemed to have the best of the 43 cars in the field. But all he could manage was a second-place finish, just 2.004 seconds behind.

Stewart came out of the pits ahead of Edwards on Lap 159 when all of the leaders made their last stop.

On Lap 164 he took the lead from fourth-place finisher Jeff Gordon, who had yet to make his final stop, and never lost it.

"We had an awesome pit stop to go in second and come out with the lead," Stewart said. "That was really the turning point. Once we got the lead, we were able to hold Carl off. They went into fuel [conservation] mode and we did the same thing.

"You hate to have to be in that situation, but that's a theme here at Pocono a lot of times. With it being such a large track, fuel mileage is always going to be important. It was a matter of running hard enough to stay in the lead, but slow enough to save fuel."

Edwards said that had the race boiled down to speed, he had the better car, but it came down to the fuel gauge.

"I'll probably be happy later," Edwards said. "But right now, man, to be that close to victory and not win, that's frustrating.

"I'd really rather be out there with a trophy, but it was still a good day for points."

Edwards, who jumped from 11th to sixth in the points chase, was hoping Stewart would run out of gas.

But the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet had just enough.

How much?

Even Stewart didn't know and he wasn't going to reveal his gas-saving techniques either, which seemed to include shutting down the engine over the closing laps.

"There are tricks you learn," he said.

Now the trick seems to be slowing down Stewart's momentum.

Stewart, who became the first driver-owner to lead the Cup series since Alan Kulwicki in 1992 with his second-place finish at Dover last week, extended his lead over second-place Gordon to 71 points.

He is rapidly becoming the story of the 2009 season, which still has 12 races left until the "Chase for the Cup" begins, including a second stop at Pocono on Aug. 2.

"I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised that we're leading the points at this point in the season," said Joe Custer, the VP of the newly formed Stewart/Hass Racing team that also includes Ryan Newman.

"I thought we would be a team that built and built and built and by the Chase, we'd be capable of doing what we are doing now."

Stewart, who got his 34th Cup series win and second at Pocono, also won the Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte in May -- an event that doesn't count in the series -- after crashing during "Happy Hour" practice.

"I'd hate to think I have to screw up every week to win a race," Stewart said. "Hopefully it's not a pattern we have to go through."

The race attracted about 90,000 fans as the economic downturn seemed to have little impact. Only the infield seemed less full than usual on a near-perfect weather day.

Light rain fell later in the race, but not enough to chase fans or stop the action.